Hikami no Shikeshimaro (氷上志計志麻呂)

HIKAMI no Shikeshimaro (year of birth and death unknown) was a member of the Imperial Family in the Nara period. He was a great grand-child of the Emperor Tenmu. His parents were the Prince Shioyaki (HIKAMI no Shioyaki), a son of the Imperial Prince Niitabe, and the Imperial Princess Fuwa. His maternal half-brother was HIKAMI no Kawatsugu.
(Some theories say that the two are the same person)

His father, the Prince Shioyaki was demoted from nobility to subject and was granted the name of Hikami no Mahito (the highest of the eight hereditary titles). Although the Prince Shioyaki was executed due to that he was held as a false emperor in the Rebellion of FUJIWARA no Nakamaro in 764, Shikeshimaro, his mother, the Imperial Princess Fuwa were not punished.

It is said that the Imperial Princess Fuwa performed an occult act (巫蠱の術) together with court ladies including AGATA no Unukai no amane, Oshisaka no himemiko and Ishida no himemiko to curse the Emperor Koken and the Emperor Shotoku to shorten their lives in order to put Shikeshimaro on the imperial throne. They stole the Emperor's hair and kept it in a skull in Saho-gawa River, and then brought it to the Imperial Palace and cursed to kill three times.

The Imperial Princess Fuwa was stripped of her title imperial princess and given the name of KURIYA no Mahitokuriyame (kitchen maid servant), deported from Kyoto, and Shikeshimaro was exiled to Tosa Province.

After the Emperor Shotoku died in 771, the Imperial Princess Fuwa was given back her title imperial princess and returned to Kyoto since the government admitted that the accusation of AGATA no inukai no aneme and others was false. As there is no record of Shikeshimaro found, it is assumed that he died in Tosa Province, but Kawatsugu, supposed to be his brother, appeared in the historical book as if replacing Shikeshimaro, so that some theories claim that the two of them were the same person.

There is a memorial tower for Shikeshimaro in Susaki City, Kochi Prefecture.

[Original Japanese]